12 , 3- é '--- "-- ----- (v twenty-one, Mr. Colborne came into an inheritance, and spent the next fif- teen years in travel and in trying to think of something he could do to re- duce the world's cussing. Early in 1901, while listening to an anti-swear- ing sermon in Brooklyn, he got the idea of the pink cards and he had five thou- sand printed. Passing them around scared him a little at first-he used to hand them to anyone he heard swearing and he was afraid that handing out a don't-swear card to a man swearing would just make a man swear more. Strangely enough, it worked the other way. Mr. Colborne told us that swear- ers were often struck dumb but none ever burst Into new oaths, and some of . . "As for YOlL) llaskins, you're nothing but a parasite ), 'I \1 \ 1 '\ \ \ I \r \..r them thanked him for his deed. In October, 1901, he founded the Anti- Profanity League. There wasn't any meeting, or any election, for that matter. He just told a few friends about it, and had the name of the League and his addre s printed on the cards. Since the founding of the League, Mr. Colborne estimates, a thousand people have written in for cards. He usually mails out a dozen when a re- quest comes in, and he figures that means five dozen new members, for every card is perforated into five di- visions, each bearing the cautionary words, and members are encouraged to tear and distribute. The largest single . DECEMDE.I\ 2. 9, 1 934- card order came in last summer. A man named Walsh wrote from Grand- view, Missouri, asking for a thousand, to distribute at baseball games out there. Mr. Colborne always pays the postage on cards him- self. He does considerable direct distributing, too, passing them out at ball games and dropping them into cars. He hands them to people in the subway rush hours. He thinks the subway is an incubator for swearIng. League members living abroad circulate cards, printed in their native ton- gues, which Mr. Colborne pays for. In 1908, Mr. Colborne had an audience with Pope Pius X, who commended his work and presented him with a scroll. In 1926, he went to Italy again and had a half-hour conference with M ussolini. They talked anti-profanity the whole time, and Mr. Colborne thinks that the drastic laws against swear- ing which went into effect in Italy in 1927 were a direct result of their ses- sion. He's not in favor of laws like that over here, though; he considers pink cards are more American. Signal T HE bootblack in the building at 444 Mad- ison Avenue has grown weary of tapping on the soles of executives' shoes, or pulling the cuffs of their trousers, when he wants them to change feet on his box. Execu- tives are usually so deep in thought when their shoes are being shined that it takes several taps and pulls. There- fore, the bootblack has installed a little gong on the shoeshine box. When he has finished the right foot, he pulls the little hammer back, lets it go, there is a sharp bong!, the executive jumps, and the left boot pops into place. C lrar T ETTER received by housewife L who moved into a new apart- ment this fall and opened an account